On the Massachusetts North Shore

5 County Street, the Rindge-Pinder-Leatherland house (1718)

5 County Street, the Rindge-Pinder-Leatherland house (1718)

According to Thomas Franklin Waters’ map of settler land grants, the lot at 5 County Street was granted to or purchased by John Warner. Abraham Hammatt wrote about the Warner family: “William Warner with his two sons, John and Daniel, and one daughter who married Thomas Wells, came from England and settled in Ipswich, in the year 1637.” William Warner’s lot was “more or less in the Mill Street,” (Market Street). John Warner 1 owned the lot at the corner of County and East Streets, and also obtained and sold two lots on East St. just past Spring Street. John Warner moved to the settlement in Brookfield in 1660 as one of that doomed town’s earliest settlers. Two of his six sons, Samuel and John, remained in Ipswich.

Map of settler land grants drawn by Thomas Franklin Waters indicates that the lot at 5 County St. was part of the John Warner grant.

Richard Rindge (also spelled Ringe) acquired the lot at 5 County St., with a house already on it, in 1718. It is assumed that Richard Rindge built this house after he purchased the lot, but the possibility remains that this is the earlier dwelling. In Sue Nelson’s inventory of First and Second Period houses in Ipswich, (roughly defined as houses built before 1725), this house is listed as Second Period. Read more about First Period construction.

“The next of the original Dutch lots was sold by Richard Ringe, heir of Richard, who had bought in 1718, with a house, to John Pinder Jr., Feb. 5, 1760. His widow, Sarah, sold to Wm. Leatherland, Jan. 3, 1799. By order of Probate Court, Chas. A. Sayward as guardian of Jacob Leatherland, insane, sold the property, and it was purchased by Daniel Clark, Feb. 21, 1872 (855: 157). It is now owned by his son, Philip E. Clark, whose cabinet shop and undertaker’s establishment occupies the site of the old house.

The house was inherited by Richard’s son (also named Richard), who sold it to John Pinder. Pinder’s widow Sarah sold the house to William Leatherland in 1799. Phillip Clark bought the house, which is where he operated an undertaker’s and cabinet shop. The 1856 village map identifies the house as “I. Dodge, Shoe Manufacturing” with an empty lot on the corner. At that time Ignatius Dodge lived in the Thomas Dennis house next door. The 1872 and 1896 maps and the 1893 Ipswich Birdseye Map do not show the house that adjoins it on the corner of East St. The 1910 village map shows the present configuration of houses.

The house is circled in this closeup from the 1884 Ipswich Village Map. The house at 3 County Street (corner of County and East) was built in the middle of the 19th Century by G. Russell, whose extended family lived in the houses at 3, 5, and 7 County Streets. The Rindge house at 5 County Street is believed to have been moved somewhat from its original location on the lot.

County Street, left to right: the Caldwell house at 11, the Benjamin Dutch house at 9 , the Thomas Dennis house at 7, the Rindge-Pinder house at 5, and the home that was constructed on the corner of the George Russell lot at 3 County St. It may be a wing that was added to the William Treadwell house that was removed from the corner of East and Spring Streets.